EASY SWEET PICKLES is a divine pickle recipe you can almost eat-right-away. It’s perfect when you have a craving for a sweet/sour flavor. It gives a wonderful lift to your favorite deli meat sandwich. It is positively addictive on a grilled hamburger. Add it to chopped salads. Plus the jars look so beautiful in your refrigerator. It only takes 15 minutes to make. It’s ready to go in eight hours, and it will last, refrigerated, for up to 5 days.
This is the Caesar Salad recipe we served in our artisan pizzeria, PASSIONATE PIZZA. We tossed every salad to order. Health concerns dictated we use mayonnaise in the dressing. I still make my dressing the Passionate Pizza way. My clever and talented Toronto granddaughter Cait loves my Caesar Salads. (I’ve dressed my sewing dress form in one of our Passionate Pizza T Shirts.)
GARLICKY CAESAR SALAD … serves six
1/4 cup Hellman’s Mayonnaise (it’s irreverent, but it works)
3 tablespoons freshly grated parmigiano reggiano, pecorino, or grana cheese (plus thin shavings of cheese for serving – optional)
2-3 anchovy fillets, drained, plus more fillets for garnishing if you wish
2 generous tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 – 3 garlic cloves, smashed
a good dash of Worcestershire sauce
a good dash of a Tabasco
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard and 2 tablespoons of capers
Freshly ground white pepper
One very large head of romaine or 3 chilled large hearts of romaine
Freshly ground black pepper and garlic croutons (recipe follows)
1. In a blender, combine the mayonnaise with the cheese, anchovies, lemon juice, garlic, Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce and Dijon Mustard. process until smooth. Season with white pepper.
2. In a large salad bowl toss the roughly chopped romaine with the dressing, capers, croutons and season with black pepper. Garnish with cheese shavings and anchovy fillets (if desired) and serve right away.
garlic croutons
In our pizzeria we would bake enormous trays of garlic croutons. You could do the same but I prefer to saute the bread. Slice country-style bread in thick slices then roughly tear into large croutons. Pour a generous amount of olive oil into a large skillet, toss in a few crushed garlic cloves, and over a low heat let the garlic cloves brown and flavour the oil. Remove the garlic. Increase the heat under your pan then add your croutons. Brown quickly on one side, then turn them over and continue browning. It is this heady aroma of garlic and the rich olive oil flavoured croutons that make this an outstanding salad. The croutons taste best made fresh so indulge and nibble on any croutons left over.
SPINACH PIE in all its glory
This dish looks professional and complicated. In reality it is easy to make. Don’t be concerned about using phyllo pastry dough. In this recipe perfection isn’t necessary. If a sheet tears just keep going. The results are truly spectacular and impressive. This is one of several vegetarian dishes I make on a regular basis. Make it part of your repertoire.
SPINACH PIE serves 6
3 cups finely chopped yellow onions
2 tbsp good extra olive oil
2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 (1o-ounce ) packages frozen chopped spinach, defrosted. This is one of those times frozen is actually better than fresh
6 extra-large eggs, beaten
2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (don’t even think of using powdered nutmeg)
1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano
3 tbsp panko or ( plain dry bread crumbs)
1/2 pound good feta, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup pine nuts (optional)
1/4 pound butter (salted or unsalted) melted
6 sheets of phyllo dough, defrosted
Reheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a medium saute pan on medium heat, sauté the onions,( sprinkled with salt) with olive oil until translucent and ever so slightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with the freshly ground black pepper and allow to cool slightly.
Squeeze out and discard as much of the liquid from the spinach as possible. Put the spinach into a large bowl, and then gently mix in the onions, eggs, nutmeg, parmigiano-reggiano, bread crumbs or panko, feta and pine nuts.
Butter a ovenproof casserole and line it with sheets of phyllo dough. To do this take one sheet from your stacked pile of phyllo dough, lay it on the counter and brush with butter. Then lay each sheet around the edges of casserole allowing about half the phyllo to hang over the edge of the dish. Pour the spinach mixture onto the phyllo and spread evenly. Neatly fold the edges up and over the top of the spinach to seal in the filling. Brush the top well with melted butter.
Bake for l hour, until the top is golden brown and the filling is set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Serve at room temperature.
Bel’ Occhio’s Blog
